Chinese choose sweeter snacks over spicy or salty ones.

A survey by Kantar Media’s Global TGI concludes that while 86 per cent of consumers throughout the US and France consume potato crisps/potato chips, and 84 per cent of Great Britain consumers, China is at the bottom end of the scale with only 28 per cent consumption.

This is not simply due to Chinese consumers snacking less overall. Data from China’s TGI (CNRS) show that Chinese consumers snacked on other goods rather than crisps, such as biscuits (66 per cent), candy (64 per cent) and chocolate (44 per cent), in the last year.

“Our research gives companies fast understanding of how people’s perception of brands drives behaviour, so they can use consumer opinion to inform their marketing strategies,” said Tracy Allnutt, head of commercial development at Global TGI.

Attitudes towards diet and health can also vary between markets. Only 25 per cent of American consumers agree it is worth paying more for organic foods, in contrast to 60 per cent of consumers in China.

And whereas 46 per cent of Chinese consumers agree that they “always think of the calories in what I eat”, there was a much lower level of agreement throughout the US of 27 per cent.

What’s striking, however, is that 39 per cent of consumers in both countries consider their diet to be ‘very healthy’, indicating that people’s perception of what they consider to be a healthy diet is likely to vary across markets.

In this case Chinese consumers are much more consistent in their perceptions of healthy eating and what this constitutes.

GB